We use every opportunity we get to educate our novices both mentally and physically. We don't try to mold them after ourselves. We try to shape them into the best possible human being they can be.

Bene Gesserit educational guideline

POV Helen Call

"Where is she? She should have been here by now," the middle-aged woman sneers. She paces up and down the room casually swaying her light cyan blue robes and raven cloak. Her strawberry blond hair stays in its steady braid as she moves. Her pupils and the white of her eyes are completely purple.

Unlike her, I keep calm in my oak chair while I softly smooth down my honeydew melon dress. Earlier, I hung my cloak in my wardrobe. I don't feel the need to prove my rank inside the comfort of my own home and neither should she. She's a Reverend Mother. Her luminescent fuchsia eyes should be proof enough of her accomplishments within the Sisterhood.

"I don't know why you even bothered to send her to a normal school. It's a waste of precious time that could be averted to her Bene Gesserit training. Besides, whatever they teach her goes against everything we try to educate her in," she halts and stares blankly ahead through the kitchen window.

"I felt that she needed to socialize with normal people and try to understand them from an altruistic perspective rather than all-knowing arrogance. If she is to be a true Sister, she has to have that fundamental view on humanity." There, that should satisfy her prying state of mind.

It works; she keeps quiet. She knows she can't contradict me without contradicting herself. However, she despises me and the work I'm doing here. Furthermore, she finds the Sisterhood's plans ridiculous, but that's exactly why the Order sent her. They would never send someone with a positive attitude towards our work; it goes against our beliefs. After all, criticism motivates better than a pat on the back.

My efforts to keep her quiet aren't a solid solution though. She regains herself and pries some more: "How advanced is she in her training? The Weirding Way, the Voice, Truthsay, sexual and observational skills?"

Those are all basic skills for any Bene Gesserit. She's not probing into Embry's advancements though, but into my teaching methods.

"She has fully mastered our way of observation and made tremendous progress in Truthsay. So far, I've only been able to teach her the Weirding Way on an elementary level. She does already have a notion of our breeding program," no response; she wants me to continue, "She knows she'll have to produce a certain amount of children for the Sisterhood."

"Have you told her about her assignment?"

"No."

I think I saw her nod. Perhaps she does agree with my methods? Perhaps she's thinking of ways to undermine me? Anyhow, today Reverend Mother Mira Allen will test my daughter Embry. Novices are tested at the age of fifteen, but most of them have had extensive training beforehand. With Embry I decided to prolong her training and send her to school. It caused her to be way behind on Bene Gesserit peers, but at least she has had a chance to make friends. I hope that won't influence her assignment.

"What does she know about her trial? Or Reverend Mothers?" Mira asks.

"She knows she'll be tested, but not when and how. I've also told her about the Agony."

The Agony, the most gruesome test a Bene Gesserit will ever have to face. After a particular venom is administered, a Sister is left to fight her own battles at the edge of her consciousness. Some fall over the edge and fail, inevitably causing them to die. Others tread alongside of it and conquer their inner struggles, thus becoming Reverend Mothers. I've heard the pain of the Agony is unbearable, but it gives a good comparison for later pain. More precisely, nothing can compare to it.

"Good, that's something I'll be able to use," Reverend Mother Mira nods.

Not a moment later, the front door opens and Embry enters in her chiffon yellow robes and pure white cloak. Recently, I bought her a new pair of shoes. They've made her completely silent. I see how Reverend Mother Allen finds it ever so amusing. Embry herself on the other hand is baffled. She didn't expect company, especially not a Reverend Mother.

After the initial shock she composes herself, closes the door and stands still. She's waiting to be spoken to, a clever decision. Mira, who turned around when Embry entered, quietly observes her, as the Sisterhood prescribes. Embry returns the favor and a faint smile glides over Mira's slightly wrinkled face before her normal emotionless stare pops up again.

After the two women have observed each other, Mira steps forward and peers at Embry's youthful brown eyes. Embry swallows nervously as the older woman stares at her with a piercing look of her glowing fuchsia eyes.

"You know what I am, don't you?" Mira grins.

"A Reverend Mother," Embry whispers carefully. She's aware of the danger radiating from this woman. Good Embry, you have every reason to fear her, but don't let her notice!

"Indeed. I'm Reverend Mother Mira Allen and I'm going to test if you're human."

POV Embry

Human? What a preposterous idea, of course I'm human! However, my definition of 'human' may not be what the Sisterhood has in mind. I guess DNA and genealogy are out of the question here.

This is the first time I see a real Reverend Mother though, but I'm not enjoying it. Mira, Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit. She terrifies me, but I stay calm. Mother's pretty calm too, sitting there in her oak chair.

Suddenly, Mira makes a quick hand gesture and Mother stands up and leaves the room. Where is she going? Why is she leaving me alone with this...witch? I need to stay calm! One wrong move or facial expression and this woman might attack me. Yet she takes out a small crystal box from under her robes. What else has she got hidden in there? She steps forward again and holds the green see-through cube in front of her, as if it's a present she's going to hand me.

"This is what I'll test you with. Do you know what it is?", I shake my head, "Good. Let's sit down."

She turns around, walks over to the sofa in the living room and sits down. I slowly follow her. She tells me to kneel in front of her on the rug. I do as she asks. She takes the box again and lifts the lid a bit. I can't see much else than the rim and the dark shades inside.

"Place your hand inside," she watches me carefully. I presume she's trying to notice signs of hesitation or fear. I am slightly hesitant as it turns out. There's just something oddly diabolical about that tiny cube.

"Scared?" her eyes light up like a bonfire and her icy smile could turn any heart to stone. "Good, you should be."

She shouldn't have said that. Oblivious to what could be in the crystal box, I place my hand inside. It feels empty, as if I put my hand in some magical void. But then the tingling starts, and it isn't long before it changes to itching.

I want to pull back, but the tiniest moment in which I decide to back away, Mira shoots out her right index finger and holds it to my jugular. She barely misses my carotid artery by holding her finger right above my skin. I freeze instantly and don't move a muscle. I even slow my breathing to the point of risk of brain damage.

Only now do I notice an abnormality on her index finger. A tiny silver snake's wrapped around it with its head at her fingernail. A fine long needle's sticking out of its metal mouth.

"Close one, wasn't it? An inch more and you'd be suffocating on this very floor," I'm barely managing to breathe as it is, "Embry Call, meet the gom jabbar! This small needle was dipped in one of the most lethal poisons known to man. It was a wise choice to freeze completely."

I couldn't agree more. This woman's mad! Meanwhile, my hand is still in her crystal cube and the pain doesn't seem to be decreasing, quite the opposite. The pain now racing through my hand is unimaginable. It feels as if someone's holding a blowtorch right above my skin hoping to caramelize it like a crème brûlée.

The burning sensation keeps getting worse. The scorching pain is overloading my brain's nervous system and I want to pull my hand away again, but then I remember the gom jabbar. I shouldn't pull away. I need to bite through the pain and fear and show this Reverend Mother who she's dealing with. Or is it the other way around? Is she showing me who I'm dealing with? Is this the true face of the Bene Gesserit? A mad middle-aged woman with fuchsia eyes who likes to torture and poison young impressionable girls?

"We've used this method to test Sisters' humanity since the beginning," she explains. "Not always with this box of horrors, but always with excruciating pain. You see, when animals are trapped, they try to escape with all their might. Some even gnaw off their own leg. That's so typical for animals.

Humans however, o no, they don't escape! They don't want to. They stay in the trap, bite through the pain and lie in wait for the one who trapped them. Many play dead so that when the trapper returns, they can surprise and kill him. Humans don't care about their survival. They simply punish their enemies."

Even though my mind was blocking out as many external factors as possible, I still heard Mira's words and I understood every single last one of them. It all makes sense and I know what I have to do. While the pain in my hand intensifies, I steady my breathing, close my eyes, numb my nerves and recite the Litany Against Fear:

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

When I open my eyes, Mira has removed the gom jabbar from my throat and her box from my hand. I expected only the bones to have remained, as if completely scorched away, but my hand is unblemished: no scar, not a scratch.

I must have looked like a fool when I saw my hand again, because Mira was chuckling. She closes her crystal cube and hides it under her robes together with her silver snake.

"So, was it really that bad?" she asks quizzically.

"No, it hurt at first, but when I stopped focusing on the pain, I stopped feeling it too. Did I pass your test?" now it was my turn to grin. It certainly didn't miss its effect. She reluctantly lets her smile fade away and slips back into her emotionless expression.

"You did. Helen, it's over!" she calls for my mother. First worried, then confidently, Mother enters the room. Her initially anxious posture isn't very surprising; Mira's call was very ambiguous. I guess Mother expected me to have died, but luckily I made it through. Now I'm a true Sister.

POV Helen

It was difficult to maintain my calm while my daughter was being trailed, but as I see her knelt on the floor, alive and well, I restrain myself and stride towards her. I sit down in my chair again and observe both women as they watch me too. Mira's unimpressed. It was just a formality in the end, she'll say.

I shouldn't have worried after all. Embry pulled through and can now be fully informed about her upcoming duties. She's allowing herself a faint smile to show her pride. She'll have to break that habit.

"Now that we're all here, we can bring you up to speed with your future tasks," Mira stays her emotionless self, "First and far most, you'll have to drop school completely. You won't have time since we'll be educating you at a rapid pace. It'll be tough, but as a proper Sister, I'm sure you'll catch up. So far you've been an unloaded gun. It's time for us to load you and aim you at our target."

A.N.: I didn't think of the Litany Against Fear. It was taken from Dune (HERBERT, F., Duin. 27th edition, Uitgeverij M, Amsterdam, 2003, 605 p.)